Far Away
by Hakkai's Lady
Summary: (set after the movie) Ruri and the crew make one last attempt to find Akito five years after the battle with the martians...But is there anything left to find?
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer Don't own the crew of the Nadesico

Far Away

Prologue: Safe

Akito stared at the shrinking shape of the Nadesico. It was over and so was he. Yurika was safe now, and that was all that mattered. He wished things could be different, but he was a shell. He couldn't be with her. Lapis, he thought, it won't be long until you and I are safe, too.

Safe. Her thought echoed back to him. They were connected by thoughts. She was part of him. The part of him that could see and hear. The part of him that held some connection to the world he could no longer experience without her. Nergal had found a way to bring him into near existence using her. Using her indeed. He did it every moment of everyday, but even with her he could not know joy. He wondered if Ruri understood this. Probably not. He was glad of that, if he could really be glad of anything.

He had tried to feel. Tried to smile for her one last time. She had grown up. He had once thought of her as his younger sister, and she had come alive under his, and the rest of the crew's attentions. Little Ruri. He thought it was her when Lapis broke into his world of black, silent nothing. He had hoped that things could be more than this. The experiments had fried away his senses deep within his brain. His motor skills had been turned to nothing. Lapis made him something—not Akito Tenkowa, but something. Did Ruri see this? Would she be able to tell Yurika?

Yurika. Yurika was lost to him. He had no soul left to feel anything but her loss. He strained to remember her as she was. Why had he not given into his feelings sooner? If he had, they could have made love. One single kiss was not enough to show her his love. Alone in nothing he had dreamed of her. A life that he could have lived. Who would have thought being out of the nothing would have been worse for him. Yurika.

Yurika. Yurika. Yurika. Yurika. That's enough Lapis, he thought. We will go together. Far away.

Staring into the blackness of space, he could almost see the blue of her eyes. Her plaintive voice crying his name. He wished he had seen her awaken, even if it was Lapis who saw it for him. He wondered what horrible things she remembered. He hoped that all of those bastards suffered ten fold what they had done for her. Wishes, dreams, and hopes were all worthless. It was over. His soul was dead, and Lapis had never really had one. Death to their physical bodies was nothing.

Lapis was the one person he could feel sympathy for. Akito had lived, but she had not. She did everything for him, yet she could not do anything for herself because there was no self. She simply was a tool to be used and forgotten. He would not, could not forget her; however, that did not matter because soon he wouldn't remember anything at all. From a man to nothing, from nothing to a shell of a man, and now finally from a shell to nothing once more.

The Aestivalis was nearing the end of its range. No air, no power meant no life. Nergal would be sorry to lose Lapis, but he couldn't do it without her and leaving her behind would have been wrong. He knew that they all hoped he would return. They all wished they could make things better for him. They dreamed that things could be fixed. But it was all worthless. He must finish dying. The two year long process had drained him of every ounce of caring. The end was a release.

Lapis died before he did. He was once more in nothing, but he somehow was aware that he was still alive. And then he saw her. Yurika was sitting on a grassy hill. "Akito!" He felt the ground beneath him as he ran to her. He could smell the scent of her perfume and taste her lips as he kissed her. He was alive again. Laughing he twirled her in his arms.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Black Tie Affair

"Come on, Ruri," Yurika said with a laugh. She handed Ruri a black dress. "You don't want to be late for your own retirement party do you?"

"I don't remember ever saying that I was going," Ruri grumbled. At twenty-four, she was done with Nergal, and that meant she wanted absolutely nothing to do with the Nadesico J. Having a retirement party on the ship wasn't her idea of a good time

Yurika sighed, and sat down beside her on the edge of the bed. "It's not like you didn't try, Ruri. He just didn't want to come back," her voice had lost all of its cheer. A decade later and Yurika still couldn't say his name.

"But we found the Aestavalis with nothing in it. I have to believe that he's out there somewhere. Nergal wasn't giving me everything I needed to find him…..if I could have had more--"

"More what, Ruri? Man power? Time? Funding? You had it all. I don't want to believe it either, but Akito is dead!" Tears welled up in Yurika's blue eyes. "Akito died when we made that jump, Ruri. I don't know why you have to push so hard!"

"I'm sorry," Ruri said softly.

Yurika wiped away her tears and pasted on a big smile. "I'll see you at the party!"

"I still didn't say I was going!" Ruri called after the older woman. "Idiot!"

She was still fuming as she slid into the skin tight dress. Pulling her hair into a French twist, Ruri glared at her reflection venomously. She wanted nothing more than to be done with this whole nightmare. Going to this party was like celebrating failure. In the years since Akito's disappearance, Ruri had forged full force into finding him, but it had all been for nothing. What had she really ever done that meant something?

A knock at the door, interrupted her thoughts. "Are you ready, Captain?"

Ruri rolled her eyes. When was Hari going to stop calling her that? She'd left the Nadesico nearly two weeks ago. Today was her official retirement. "In a minute," she called back.

Ruri put on some lipstick, and stared at herself. She most certainly wasn't a little girl anymore. She wasn't traditionally beautiful. Men fawned over her because she had an ethereal look to her. Her large golden eyes and long silver hair combined with her pale skin gave her a fairy-like appearance that seemed to attract some of the more bizarre men in the world. The Jovians thought she was some kind of sex symbol, but all the anime they watched had warped their minds.

Hari was leaning against the wall when she opened the door. The young man stared at her for a long time before he found his voice. "You look wonderful."

"Thanks." Accepting compliments didn't come naturally to Ruri. Like all social skills, it just didn't seem to agree with her. She blamed most of it on the genetic engineering, and the rest on her upbringing. Hari's long standing crush didn't make it any easier. She would never knowingly hurt his feelings, but she couldn't take his advances seriously. The boy was too much like her and way too young.

"I was wondering if you would dance with me this evening?" he asked nervously straightening his collar.

"Hari, wouldn't it have been more appropriate to wait until we are at the party?" she asked.

"I'm sorry, Captain." The young man's face had turned red.

She sighed. "Please, call me Ruri. I'm not the captain of the Nadesico anymore, Hari."

"You always will be the captain to me. Do you think that I would just forget all those years?" Hari asked.

"I'm not asking you to. I just…I want to end this." Ruri looked away.

"But why?"

"Nothing lasts forever, Hari. I need to move on."

"You didn't find what you were looking for, so you're giving up! You didn't find him, but what about me? Ruri, aren't I enough….I…uh…I mean isn't the crew enough?" Hari sounded as though he was ready to cry.

"You will always be my friends," she told him softly, "but it's time."

Hari nodded.

Neither of them said a word in the back of the limo. They pulled up to the exclusive hotel to see a crowd of fans gathering outside. Ruri was practically a star in her own right. Nergal had used her as the poster girl for their programs in dealing with both political and public relations. There wasn't a person on Earth, Jupiter, Mars, or the moon who didn't know who Ruri Hoshina was. Security kept the crowd away from the red carpet as she stepped out. Hari stood at her side as though he were her boyfriend, and she didn't say anything to dissuade him.

The grand ballroom was brimming with politicians and crewmembers alike, and everyone turned when she came into the room. If it wasn't for Hari's arm around her waist, she would have walked out. Everyone was clapping and smiling. Ruri did her best to appear to be gracious. There were a few faces in the crowd that she knew, and she immediately made her way to them as the applause died down.

Ms. Minato and her "sister" Yukina were among the first to greet her. "Well, Ruri, you certainly look grown up!" Minato said with a giggle. Though she had been "grown up" for quite sometime, people still thought of her as a little girl.

"It's good to see you again. How have you been?"

"Well, I…" the volupous woman had just begun talking when a handsome man appeared at her side.

"Here's your drink, darling." The man was very tall and thin with light brown hair and eyes. "Hello."

"Jai, I'd like you to meet Ruri Hoshina. Ruri, this is my fiancé Jai Gardener."

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Ruri," Jai said with a smile.

Ruri smiled. "The pleasure is all mine."

Minato was obviously very much in love. She kept glancing over at him and smiling as she ushered Ruri off to the side of the room. "Love is wonderful. You should try it sometime Ruri-buri."

Ruri couldn't help but grin a little at the nick name. No one, but Minato would have thought that one up. For all her ditzy persona, Minato was actually one of the most intelligent crew members the Nadesico had ever had. "I don't know what that is."

"Sure you do," Minato insisted.

"You didn't bring me out here to talk about my love life," the silver haired woman said taking a seat on the balcony railing.

"You're right about that. Akatsuki was looking for you. I saw Megumi earlier tonight, and apparently Akatsuki had already spoken to her. She seemed shook up."

"That's strange," Ruri commented thoughtfully. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't seen Megumi in the ballroom, and it was unlike Megumi to miss something like this. "Do you have any idea what it's about?"

"No, but I don't think you'll have to wonder much longer." Minato pointed to the tall figure in the doorway with Ms. Won in tow.

"No, I don't think you will," Akatsuki said with the wry smile of his.

Ruri narrowed her eyes. The CEO of Nergal had never been high on her list of favorite people. He had the brains of an untrained chimp, and the morals of a dog. There were very few people she liked less, and one of them was standing right behind Akatsuki.

"Don't look so happy to see me," Akatsuki quipped. He adjusted his tie, and took a place beside her uninvited.

Won wasn't so bold. "Let's get this over with."

"What was it that you told Megumi to upset her?" Ruri asked calmly.

"I'll get to the point; we have Akito Tenkowa.

Ruri's heart dropped.


End file.
